Domestic Life
by Salve-SiS
Summary: Jason did not consider himself the father type, but to Catherine he was the best daddy in the whole world [fifty moments in the life of Jason Todd and his daughter].
1. Year 1: First Day of School

**AN: The idea of Jason having a daughter has been stewing in my head for awhile. So I'm taking the plunge! Ah, this is gonna be so weird, writing Daddy! Jason.**

**DISCLAIMER: If I owned Batman, or Young Justice, there would be a Season Three, and there would be Jason Todd in it. That is all.**

* * *

_(First Day of School)_

It was three in the morning when Jason caught his four year old daughter raiding the fridge.

"Catherine, what the he-what are you doing?"

Catherine was wearing her Cinderella costume from Halloween, complete with the headband and gloves. He had no idea how she could stand wearing such a poofy outfit in this kind of weather. "Hi Daddy! I was-I'm getting ready for school. Do you like my dress?"

She twirled around gracelessly; she swayed a bit before straightening up and looking up expectantly at Jason.

"You look very pretty sweetheart, but you're way past your bedtime. And school doesn't start for another four hours, anyway."

"I tried sleeping, bu-but I'm so excited I can't!" Catherine jumped up. "Daddy, can we-can we go now? I wanna go now."

"Catherine, school doesn't start until 7:30. If we went now we'd have to wait four hours until the doors opened."

"That's okay! We can play lots of games to pass the time, like hide and seek or tag! Or maybe we can go to the park instead!"

"Sweetheart, it's _late. _Come on, I'll tuck you in."

"But _Daddy, _I'm not _tired-"_

Jason picked up his reluctant daughter in his arms. As he escorted her to her room, she piped up: "Daddy? Can you tell me a bedtime story?"

He chuckled. "Sure thing, sweetheart."


	2. Year 5: Valentine's Day

_(Valentine's Day)_

* * *

Usually when Catherine came home, she talked Jason's ear off about what happened during school. This time however, she rushed into her room and refused to come out for half an hour. "Catherine?" Jason knocked on her door. "Catherine, are you alright?"

"I'm fine!" She called out from inside, her voice muffled. He could her rummage through her desk.

"You've been in there for a while…What exactly have you been doing?"

"Nothing! Just give me a minute-_hey!" _

She'd forgotten to lock the door. Jason stepped into his daughter's room and surveyed the surroundings. Catherine lay on the floor, surrounded by crayons and construction paper. She squealed as she tried to hide something with her arms.

Jason crouched down and whisked the mysterious object from her grasp. "What's this?"

It was a card. She'd drawn a large red heart on the cover, and on the inside she wrote:

_Daddy,_

_I really, really, really, really, really love you!_

_From, _

_Catherine Avery Todd _

"Daddy, I wasn't finished!" Catherine complained.

"Is this my Valentine's Day card?" Her father asked with a smirk. "It's a day late, you know."

"It's not for Valentine's Day!" At this point, she had gotten up to her feet. She crossed her arms stubbornly. "Kim from school said it's _stupid _how people only give each other cards on Valentine's Day. Why can't people be nice on normal days? So I waited until today to make you a card. I was gonna add sparkles to it…" she hung her head with disappointment.

"I think it's perfect as it is." Jason said.

Catherine looked up. "Really?"

"Really."

Beaming, she tackled him with a hug around his legs. "I love you, Daddy."

He smiled gently at her. "I love you too, Catherine."


	3. Year 3: Father of the Bride

_(Father of the Bride)_

"Hey Daddy, can I get married?"

Jason choked on his beer. Wiping his mouth, he turned to face his seven year old daughter and simply asked, _"What?" _

Catherine blinked. "This boy in my class asked me to marry him, but I told him I wanted to ask you first. Can I, Daddy?"

"No! No, you can't!" He didn't mean to be so loud, and he knew it didn't mean anything, but he did _not _want to think of his daughter getting involved with boys anytime soon.

Catherine pouted. "Aw…"

Jason shook his head. "Why do you even want to…_marry _him anyway?"

"Well, he's really nice to me. Sometimes he shares his mom's cookies with me. I like him." Catherine smiled, ignorant to her father's rapidly increasing stress.

"I'm suddenly seeing ten years into the future," he muttered under his breath. "And it's not pretty."


	4. Year 1: Nightmares

**Disclaimer: The lyrics seen in this chapter are from the song "Lullaby" by Emmy Rossum. That is all. **

* * *

_(Nightmares) _

They eat dinner quietly, and when he tucks her in he doesn't kiss her on the cheek like Mommy or Uncle Dick does. He says goodnight and maybe he wants to say more, but he just clicks the light off and leaves her to sleep.

So naturally she digs around in her suitcase and pulls her Rarity doll out. "Hi, Rarity," she whispers to the unicorn. "Were you lonely in there without me?"

Adopting Rarity's posh voice, Catherine says, _"Oh, sweetheart, I missed you so much! It was so boring without you!" _

"I'm sorry, Rarity, I missed you a lot too. But I was busy…spending time with…Daddy."

"_Daddy…? Oh, _that _Daddy! It must be so nice to meet him after all this time." _

Catherine smashes her lips together. She thinks about her friend Lizzy's Daddy, how he hugs her and twirls her around and calls her sweetie or baby girl. She thinks about Uncle Dick, how he buys her ice cream and calls her Katie, and even though she doesn't like being called that at least he _has _a nickname for her.

She thinks about Mommy, how she knew what her favorite foods were and her favorite toys and how she liked to be hugged and kissed and carried. Mommy had known everything about her.

Her daddy can barely look her in the eyes.

Catherine hugs Rarity close to her chest. She stays like that for what feel like hours and hours until she hears what sounds like screaming. She jumps and scurries under the bed, whimpering as the shouts continue. Eventually she realizes it's not going to stop, so she edges out from under the bed and begins her search.

She finds herself in Ja-Daddy's room. He thrashes around, his hands fly everywhere, and on his face is a look of complete terror and _so much anger. _His screams start to sound desperate, and Catherine fights the urge to run back to her room as she climbs into her father's bed. She wraps her arms around his stomach, and he immediately throws her off. She lets out a small cry of pain before climbing further up on the bed and hugging her father around the shoulders so that their faces touched. It is a struggle to hold on, but she does, and she tries to sing to help him get back to sleep.

"_Laying alone with the history that made you  
Cold and uncertain inside  
Well careful now, deep breath  
The water's still rising but your silver lining's inside, _

_Close your eyes, don't you cry  
Let the sorrow within you subside  
Don't despair, have no fear  
Give your way to me when you hear this lullaby," _

She can't remember all the lyrics, but the ones she does she sings shakily, tears streaming down her face as she thinks about her Mommy singing these same words to her. It hurts.

Finally, Daddy quiets down. He's shivering, his face is gleaming with sweat, but he's calmer than Catherine's seen him all day. He opens his eyes, looks at Catherine, and says, "C-Catherine, what…?"

"You were having a bad dream," she whispers. She's suddenly afraid he will get mad at her for staying up past bedtime. "So I tried singing you to sleep…but you woke up. I'm sorry."

He stares at her for the longest time. He opens his mouth as if to say something, but instead he pulls her close, resting his head on top of hers. She breathes into his chest, and doesn't say another word.

This is their first hug, Catherine thinks, before falling asleep in her Daddy's arms.


	5. Year 1: Easter

_(Easter)_

"Daddy, what did you used to for Easter?"

Jason blinked, turning from his work to his four year old daughter staring up at him curiously. "Hey...when did you get here?"

Catherine shrugged both her shoulders, and proceeded to ignore the question. "Mommy and me went to Church last year. It was soo boring, but Mommy said we had to go or else God would be sad, and later she bought me a chocolate for being a good girl. What did you and your Mommy used to do for Easter?"

"My mother was never a holiday sort of mom," Jason said, remembering all the Christmases and birthdays his mother spent high on drugs. "I remember there were a few kids though, who used to throw eggs at some of the people passing by the neighborhood."

Catherine's mouth opened into a perfect O. "That's so mean!"

"Some of them deserved it," Jason said. His daughter looked at him, startled, and he was quick to add, "But no, throwing eggs at people is wrong, so, ah, don't do it, okay?"

He _really _needed to work on this parenting thing.

Catherine nodded, chest and cheeks puffed out. "I promise, Daddy!"

"Good."

"Hey, Daddy?" She piped up after a minute or so of silence. "Will you buy me bunny ears?"

"Bunny ears...? Oh, uh, sure."

"Right now?"

"I'm a little busy right now, Catherine..." But then she widened her eyes and pouted so exaggeratedly that he sighed and got up on his feet.

* * *

Dick had no idea how Catherine managed it, but he was so taking her out for ice cream later.

His little brother-his badass, (former) crime lord brother, was wearing a pair of black, fluffy bunny ears, and drawn on his cheeks were thick, wobbly whiskers. While Catherine, dressed in a similar matter except with a pink nose to boot, jumped around in the background asking if Uncle Dick could play Hide and Seek with them too, Jason glared at Dick and hissed, "If you tell _anyone-"_

"That you're a good dad?" Dick scoffed. "Like anyone would believe me."

Before Jason could curse his older brother out, Catherine hopped over to him and tugged his hand. Jason immediately turned all his attention over to her, and Dick took advantage of the moment by snapping a picture of the Todds and dashing out of the apartment, laughing as Jason shouted after him.


End file.
